Monthly Archives: April 2016

Employers’ initial offer to higher education unions does not include the living wage.

The five higher education trade unions have rejected an initial pay offer from the employers and urged them to improve it before the next meeting.

The unions met UCEA, the employers’ representative body, on 21 March – the first of the 2016-17 pay negotiation meetings.

The trade unions presented a joint claim and the employers responded with an opening offer.

This offer included a 1% increase on all pay points, as well as a statement that the employer has a genuine interest in exploring whether all sides can agree joint work on reducing both the gender pay gap and casual work in the sector.

The joint unions rejected this proposal, which does not address areas such as the living wage, and urged the employer to improve the offer before the next meeting, which is scheduled for 28 April.

Are you coming up to retirement? Do you know that you can continue to get benefits of being a UNISON member after you leave The University of Sheffield?

As a retired member you would still have access to UNISON Welfare and UNISON Legal Services as well as receiving special rates or increased benefits from UNISON’s service providers.

You just need to have been a member for at least 2 years and to apply within 2 years of retiring from The University of Sheffield and to be either be getting a pension or have reached the state pension age.

Responding to the announcement of the Hillsborough inquest verdict, UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said:

“After 27 years of lies and cover-ups, the families of the 96 finally have justice. This has been a struggle that united a city and then a nation behind the battle for truth and accountability.

“For too long, smears in the media and by the authorities meant that justice was denied. UNISON has been proud to stand with the families and the campaign from the outset. We shared their desire for justice because many of our members saw what really happened on that terrible afternoon.

“This has always been a cause that is close to my heart. Like so many people, I will be thinking of friends and family today, and those who were taken from us all those years ago.”

UNISON is to campaign for the UK to stay part of the European Union, and will be encouraging its 1.3 million members to vote remain on 23 June.

The decision was taken today (Wednesday) at a meeting of the union’s governing NEC, and follows an extensive UK-wide consultation and survey across UNISON’s branches.

The fear that Brexit would mean the loss of the many workplace rights – parental leave, paid holiday, protection for part-timers and limits on excessive hours – that UK employees have come to take for granted is the most important issue in the coming referendum, according to UNISON’s overwhelmingly female membership.

Concern over what might happen to those employment rights should the UK vote to leave the EU was closely followed by worries about the plight of the country’s public services if Britain opted to go it alone.

Across the country, a million people in low-paid jobs have yet to apply for tax credits. This will include low-income UNISON members. But they need to hurry up and apply before it’s too late and universal credit arrives in their area.

If people don’t claim tax credits by the time the full universal credit service arrives in their town or city, they could end up much worse off. This is because, while chancellor George Osborne backed down over cuts to tax credits in his Budget last July, cuts to universal credit work allowances remain and came in this week.

If members leave it until universal credit comes in to claim support they’re entitled to, they will lose out. But if they claim tax credits before, this will be protected.

So UNISON, in partnership with benefit experts Entitledto, has launched an online calculator as part of a campaign to encourage people to take up the benefits they are due. Members can find it at unison-takeup.entitledto.co.uk.

Commenting on the debate in the Commons that has seen the government accept many of the Trade Union Bill amendments made last week in the Lords, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said:

“Without these significant changes, unions representing working people across the UK would have found it hard to continue doing what they do best – speaking up for those being treated badly at work and campaigning for a fairer society.

“Of course we’d rather the Bill had never existed, and there is much that is still wrong with it. Even with today’s amendments it still places unnecessary burdens on working people and their unions.